The Ultimate Love

The Ultimate Love 1 John 1:5-7NLT

Introduction: How far can you walk? one block, two? one mile, ten? We used to be a nation of people who walked, but now are a nation dependent upon the automobile. We used to be a church of people who walked with God, but now what are we?

Can a Christian have a private fellowship with God, to the exclusion of others? Can we ignore other Christians and be real Christians?

This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. 6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

This is the ultimate message of all messages, God is love! Moreover, without the existence of God, a God that loves, nothing that was made would exist. The earth as we know it, as God’s children, would be nothing but mere space, but wait… There wouldn’t even be any space. Wow, now that’s deep.

Listen to Psalm 36:9NKJ For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light.

Remember: God is light- in Him is no darkness. God is life- in Him is no death. God is love- in Him is no hate.

First thing I want you to remember is: The ultimate relationship is fellowship with the God of pure light, and then fellowship with others.

I John 1:5Amp And this is the message [the message of promise] which we have heard from Him and now are reporting to you: God is Light, and there is no darkness in Him at all no, not in any way].

In 1879, Thomas Edison invented the electric light bulb. Twenty-two years later, in 1901, one of the newfangled gadgets was hung, and turned on, in the Livermore, Calif., Fire Department. It’s still there, and still on. The old bulb has almost never been turned off in 113 years. By today’s standards it should have burned out 856 times by now. The bulb, hand-blown, with a thick carbon filament, was made, it is said, by the Shelby Electric Company, which did not become one of the giants of the nation, for an obvious reason. The Shelby Company made light bulbs to last, and nobody ever reordered. The bulb is respected by Fire Captain Kirby Slate and his men. In a time of of gadgets forever falling apart or burning out or breaking up, it’s reassuring to watch a dusty 113-year-old light bulb shine on and on and on.

Verse 5b, of I John 1 again, …God is Light, and there is no darkness in Him at all no, not in any way].

Walking in the light of God changes everything. No shadows, no tricks, just pure light.

Listen to Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:17-19NLT And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

When we know Christ, we become “rooted and established in love.” Paul uses the word picture of a tree with roots descending deep into nourishing soil. The tree stands strong and healthy because of how and where it is rooted.

Hear this, “You get to fellowship with radiant light, to become radiant light! P.H.

Secondly, if you have a shared relationship with Jesus Christ, you don’t stumble around in the dark.

I John 1:6TM If we claim that we experience a shared life with him and continue to stumble around in the dark, we’re obviously lying through our teeth—we’re not living what we claim.

What’s the first thing you do when you do wrong? Hide? Do it in the dark? Become very secretive, and sucusive?

Illustration: The great “prince of preachers” Charles Haddon Spurgeon used to tell this story: “A certain duke once boarded a galley ship. As he passed the crew of slaves, he asked several of them what their offenses were. Almost every man claimed he was innocent. They laid the blame on someone else or accused the judge of yielding to bribery. One young fellow, however, spoke out, ‘Sir, I deserve to be here. I stole some money. No one is at fault but myself. I’m guilty.’ Upon hearing this, the duke seized him by the shoulder and shouted, ‘You scoundrel, you! What are you doing here with all these honest men? Get out of their company at once!’ He was then set at liberty while the rest were left to tug at the oars.”